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New Church, Old Building (Part 3)

We’ve moved in! June 7 we had our first worship service in our new building. Mountain View Presbyterian sent a worship team to help us launch. Having a violin in the building really makes the music soar! I haven’t posted for awhile because it has been a lot of work getting everything set up and ready. Currently we only have an occupancy rating of 49, but after we make some more changes to the doors and exit signs we can increase that to around 180.

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There is still a lot of work left to do. Like any church that owns a building, we will probably have an endless list of projects that need to be done, but we are pushing forward. Our guiding goal is to be good stewards and leverage what God has given us to bless the community. We already have a couple of community groups lined up to use our space for some events and we hope to continue in this direction. We are beginning to make some good connections with neighbors and look forward to getting to know our neighborhood better. It is a lively and fun part of town to be in!

Tidelands Sanctuary3
Our biggest concern about purchasing a building was that it might end up being a distraction from our goal of building a congregation of missional communities. Yet even with all of the time, work, and expense of moving through the purchase process and moving into the building, we continue to see positive movement with our missional communities. Perhaps the biggest change has been that we are now hosting a small, informal worship gathering in the Senior Center at 10:30 AM on Tuesdays. Our goal is to provide worship for those that are not able to travel to come to worship on Sunday morning. We also want to continue with the relationships that we have established there and hopefully build new ones. It is going to take some flexibility and creative thinking to establish a missional community around those that live at the Senior Center, but this seems to be a step in the right direction.

Tidelands Sanctuary 2I’ve posted some pictures of how we have arranged the building currently. Adjustments and some new equipment will be necessary to make it all come together for our needs. Our biggest challenge at the moment is that the acoustics of the building create a lot of bounce and echo. As nice as it would be to hire an acoustical engineer, we are going to have to try out some more creative solutions. Having chairs and some soft couches in the main sanctuary help somewhat, but it will obviously need more sound diffusion and/or absorption.

You may also notice that we don’t have a formal office space set up. Right now the plan is to keep the building open and flexible and create a cafe-type feel where possible. Once we get some cafe-syle, bar-height tables we will have plenty of available space for myself and any volunteers to work on projects – which is all we really need at the moment. We also have plenty of available space for small or large meetings.

Tidelands Sanctuary 4It is wonderful not to have setup and takedown these past few Sundays. It isn’t like we had all that much to setup to start with, but it was still quite a bit of work. After 2 1/2 years of setup and takedown I almost don’t know what to do with myself on Sunday morning! It is wonderful to have a “home base” in Stanwood. I will continue to use my office at home on Camano as my “study,” but I am already spending more of my day in and around Stanwood – this has always been the goal.

Tidelands Room
Yes, that is the pastor’s kid lying on the floor!

 

 

New Church, Old Building? (Part 2)

We now have a purchase and sale agreement in place for the old Presbyterian Church building in Stanwood (hopefully soon to be the new one!). If everything falls into place we will close on the property on May 15, 2015. There is more of the story to be told, but for now I wanted to post a short video tour.

When the Church Looks Biblical

As I get older I find that very little of what I say or teach originally came from me. Sometimes I can remember where I read or heard something that I am saying, sometimes I can remember that it was not my idea but I cannot remember where it came from, and often I suspect that I forget altogether and take the idea as my own. Those are probably  the best ideas. They hold so much truth that I “own” them.Bible

Such is the case when it comes to one of my favorite things to say in response to those who want to start or reclaim a “New Testament Church.” I know this isn’t my idea, but I now claim it as my own. My response is this: “Which of the crazy, sinful, messed-up New Testament churches do you want to be like?” The reality is that most of Paul’s letters were written, in part, because there was a major problem in a particular church community. Even if we go to the earliest, and claim the first church in Jerusalem that we read about in the beginning of Acts as our ideal, we have to stop short in our reading. Otherwise we find racial tensions, people deceiving the church, and administrative problems.

Such has always been the case with the church. It isn’t a perfect community, but it is a community formed around the worship of a perfect God. Currently I am re-reading Eugene Peterson’s book, Leap Over a Wall, about the life of King David. In it I am finding a lot of inspiration for my current preaching series on 1st and 2nd Samuel, following the life of David. While reflecting on the story of David at Ziklag, Peterson writes this:

Every time I move to a new community, I find a church close by and join it–committing myself to worship and work with that company of God’s people. I’ve never been anything other than disappointed: every one turns out to be biblical, through and through: murmurers, complainers, the faithless, the inconsistent, those plagued with doubt and riddled with sin, boring moralizers, glamorous secularizes. Every once and a while a shaft of blazing beauty seems to break out of nowhere and illuminate these companies, and then I see what my sin-dulled eyes had missed: word of God-shaped, Holy Spirit-created lives of sacrificial humility, incredible courage, heroic virtue, holy praise, joyful singing, constant prayer, persevering obedience. I see “Christ-for Christ plays in ten thousand places,/ Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his/ To the Father through the features of men’s faces.”

The phrase “biblical through and through” grabs me! A “biblical” church, if it reflects what we see in scripture, is made up of a thousand stories of sin and redemption, failure and hope. To be “biblical” in this sense is not to be moral, or to have good exegetical preaching, but rather to be in relationship with a Holy God that continues to work through the messy community of redeemed people that we call “the Church.” I wonder if all those “Bible” churches had that in mind when they put it in their name? Hmm… “Tidelands Bible Church.” That has a nice ring to it!

Prodigal God by Tim Keller

I am deeply grateful to Tim Keller and his teaching on this text. Over the years it has had a major influence on my understanding of Jesus’ teaching/storytelling and my understanding of God’s grace in my own life. Tim has also written a book on this parable called “Prodigal God” that explores this parable in more depth.

Reflections on General Assembly

Most people that I work with at Tidelands Church are new to the Presbyterian Church (USA). Even those who are already Presbyterian members may not have a good understanding of something like General Assembly. This being the case, I have been to thinking about how to give direction to those of you who may be interested in knowing more about some of the recent decisions that took place at General Assembly. I recently ran across the following blog that is helpful because it has many relevant links for further reading as well as a well-written pastoral response: “AN OPEN LETTER TO MY CHURCH…” While I do not share all of the same opinions as Rev. Lindsley there are some points I want to echo:

  • My door is open. (No, I don’t have a literal office door yet, but I would be happy to meet and talk)
  • I’m thankful to be part of denomination that is wrestling with very difficult issues instead of pretending like there is no room for discussion/debate. Whether we like it or not, these issues are not going away and it is better to be talking about how scripture addresses these issues than ignoring the major cultural shifts taking place.
  • If you are unhappy with any of the decisions, take some time. Steve suggested six months, I would suggest at least 12. The reality is that we live in a consumeristic mentality most of the time in our culture and want instant gratification or we “take our business elsewhere.” This is not the model we follow in the Church. We also tend to believe that we as individuals (whether pastors or lay leaders) have it all figured out while others are messed up and/or wrong. Hopefully, like me, you have changed some of your previous views as the result of the Holy Spirit working through scripture and leading you to a more faithful understanding. While I think my current interpretation of scripture is accurate, I would be a fool not to be open to the corrective work of God in my life and to assume that I have “arrived” at a perfect theology. Yes, it is hard to be part of a large group of Christians that often disagree on how to interpret scripture, but it is better than being a lone ranger or sole authority where alternate opinions are stifled.

Oso Landslide

 

Picture of Oso Landslide
Picture of Oso Landslide

I’ve been amazed at all of the media attention about the Oso landslide in recent days. Not only have I heard reports on regional and national news, but on world news as well (I was amused to hear BBC describe Oso as a “fishing village.”) This is the second time in the last year that this has happened. Last year the Interstate 5 bridge over the Skagit river collapsed and made headlines. Now it is a disaster on the Stillaguamish river drawing attention – and the tragedy is much worse because many lives have been lost. In both situations I had the surreal feeling of being close and yet so far removed from what was happening.

This one definitely hit close to home! We drive across the Stillaguamish River (“Stilly”) every day when we travel on or off of Camano Island. My boys and I enjoy fishing the Stilly for salmon every fall. Just this December we drove the stretch of highway that is now covered by the landslide on our way to get a Christmas tree. The bridge over the Stilly is the only land access we have to our island, so you can imagine that it was nerve-racking to hear people talking about possible flash flooding and debris damage to bridges downstream from the landslide. For the first 24 hours, whenever we drove over the island bridge we looked anxiously for the river flow to return to normal from the eerily low state it was in after being blocked by the landslide. Fortunately, this danger passed quickly and attention turned to all of those directly hit by the slide debris.

I have already talked to one woman in our church who has family with property destroyed by the landslide. Fortunately, they only use the place as a vacation home and no one was there during the slide. But the death toll continues to mount and the list of missing persons is still large. And yet, it seems a world away from us. We have been told that volunteers are not needed at this point because already there are too many people on scene and professional rescuers (including the National Guard) are doing their work. Money donations are primarily needed at this point (The Red Cross is actively involved). But beyond this it is hard to know how to help for now.

I can’t help but think that this is just the latest story in the media spotlight, and that attention will soon be focused elsewhere. The reality is, that while this disaster is huge for those of us who live in this area (and especially the residents of Darrington who have now lost their primary route to the urban Puget Sound region), soon the news stations will be bored and move on to the next sensation. In my mind, that is when the real help begins.

As I look at the pictures of homes laying wrecked in a mass of mud I can’t help but notice the similarity to the devastation caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita on the Gulf Coast (though this landslide is on a much, much smaller scale). I took a team down to work with Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) roughly one year after the storms hit. At that point the media spotlight had moved on and what was left was simply a lot of work. People were trying to rebuild, trying to get insurance help, and living in small trailers where they once had a spacious home for their family. Businesses were closed and life was hard, but I was proud to see churches stepping up to help so long after others had moved on. I saw something similar in Cedar Rapids, Iowa when I went to work with PDA on flood recovery there after media attention had moved on and winter was setting in on homes still damaged.

That brings me to the main purpose of writing this entry. We live in a culture that has been programmed with a “commercial” mentality. Something grabs our attention for awhile, but then we become bored and want the next thing. Don’t bore us with details – just say it and move on! But this is not who the church is called to be. It is great that we can mobilize volunteers to go halfway across the country to help when tragedy strikes. It is great that we can raise lots of money to support those affected by disasters. It is good to gather in prayer for those facing loss. But the real work of the church comes when people are engaged in the lives of other people – when Christians live out the gospel so thoroughly that they are willing to commit to people for the long haul rather than look for the “quick fix.”

My sense is that theOso community is rather close-knit, and that there are deeply committed Christians already there and engaged. When, and if, they ask for help that will be the time for the larger church to step up. If that happens, it will likely be afterthe excitement of being a “rescuer” has passed, after national attention has turned elsewhere. Being a “first responder” might be a great adrenaline rush and might make us feel better about something that is ultimately out of our control, but being a “second responder”  – out of the spotlight, pushing away the long-dried mud,listening to the grief of those still struggling with loss, speaking words of hope and doing deeds of love – that is the work of God’s church!

PostKatrina
A sign of life in the form of a raised garden bed – Pearlington, Mississippi post-Katrina/Rita.

 

A Growing Church is a Dying Church

I find this post powerful and thought-provoking even though I am not engaged in a traditional pastoral “call” and Tidelands isn’t even close to an established congregation. Nevertheless, there are two truths here, that we already know, but I find very powerful because we need to keep reminding ourselves of them as we wrestle with change: 1. Our Savior is Jesus (not the pastor, the budget, the programs, the building etc., etc.) 2. Following Jesus leads to the cross.

Hopping Hadrian's Wall

Whenever a congregation goes looking for a new pastor, the first question on their minds when the committee interviews a new candidate is: Will this pastor grow our church?

I’m going to go ahead and answer that question right now: No, she will not.

No amount of pastoral eloquence, organization, insightfulness, amicability, or charisma will take your congregation back to back to its glory days.

What then can your pastor do?  She can make your board meetings longer with prayer and Bible study.  She can mess with your sense of familiarity by changing the order of worship and the arrangement of the sanctuary.  She can play those strange new songs and forget about your favorite old hymns.  She can keep on playing those crusty old hymns instead of that hot new contemporary praise music.  She can bug you incessantly about more frequent celebration of Communion.  She can ignore your phone…

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Abraham’s Family Tree

We are in the middle of a message series at our Sunday worship gatherings on “Family.” We are taking a look at the family of Abraham and the covenant made by God as recorded in Genesis. This is a way for us to think about what it means to be called into a church community (family) today. Specifically, we have been paying attention to God’s purpose in establishing a covenant with Abraham and his descendants: That they would be a “blessing to all the nations.” We see this in the original call to Abraham and repeated numerous times afterward to various people. Here is a graphic that I borrowed as an illustration this past Sunday. Some people asked if I would post it here for reference. It can be found on “The Bible as it Is” blog.

Abraham's Family Tree

Here we go!

Ahhh...vacation.
Ahhh…vacation.

Our family just returned from a wonderful two weeks of vacation! I have to say that I don’t ever remember feeling the need for a vacation quite as much as I did this summer. It has been a joyful, exciting, yet very tiring past year of our life. Last summer we were so busy trying to renovate our home on Camano Island and make the move from Marysville that we didn’t get much of a break. We had a great one week break for Spring Break, but sometimes it just takes me a bit longer to truly settle down and relax. So now we are back home and ready to launch into the fall. Kristina is already back to work (she’s a teacher) and the kids will start school next week. I start coaching fall soccer today.

Since I’m also busy writing updates for newsletter, council meetings, social media, etc., I’m  going to share one of those here that may be a repeat of some information but will give people a big picture view of where we are with Tidelands. Here it is:

Summer2013What a wonderful summer it has been to be living on Camano Island and starting a new worshipping community in Stanwood! Our first missional community (meeting on Camano Island) learned a bit more about “rhythm” together as we moved through our first summer of vacations, busy weekends, and late summer nights. With school out, it was more challenging to stay in touch with other families and bless the local school, so we took advantage of the location and weather and invited them to the beach! We built up some great relationships around the barbecue and campfire that we continue to pray about and will build upon this fall. In addition, we helped the PTA pressure wash and repaint the local elementary school playground and added a colorful USA map. Soon we will be helping re-launch the Watch D.O.G.S. program at the school.

This fall a couple of our MC members will be coaching soccer in Stanwood (and many of our kids will be playing on teams). We see this as yet another opportunity to meet and bless those that do not yet know the power of the Gospel. Looking forward, we are still hoping that we can help launch a “backpack” program in partnership with the Stanwood food bank that will allow elementary school kids in “food insecure” situations could take food home for the weekend. Keep in mind that all of this and more is happening through our first missional community. Our long-term plan is to have MC’s all over the Stanwood/Camano Island area blessing their neighborhoods in the name of Jesus!

Our Sunday morning worship gatherings have undergone quite a change over the summer. We ended up moving our worship to the Stanwood Community and Senior Center (on the hill above Stanwood High School). It is the historic Lincoln School Building. The facility has a welcoming staff and plenty of room for future growth in attendance. Also, our children now have a separate room to go during the preaching time. Heidi Adams has stepped up to coordinate this for us. It is little things like this that mean a lot when you are small and starting out!

Our relationship with the Stanwood Community and Senior Center is already becoming a great partnership and service opportunity for us! We discovered that there are a number of seniors living in the apartments attached to the Center that can no longer easily get out for worship on Sunday. They have readily joined us and are now an active part of our fellowship! These seniors weren’t exactly on our radar screen when we identified one of our target groups as those that “can’t “ make it to worship on Sunday (we were thinking more along the lines of those who had to work on Sunday), but they were certainly on God’s radar and the Holy Spirit has led us to them! What a blessing for us! Soon we will be repainting part of the entryway of the Senior Center at the request of the Center staff.

Our worship is still meeting every week and we are seeing slow but steady growth in our attendance. However, we continually remind ourselves that this cannot be the primary measure of our success or faithfulness in what God has called us to do. I pray every day that we will experience our first adult baptism. Please join us in that prayer as well as praying that God will lead other mature Christian leaders to help us in these early stages of development. I am especially hoping and praying for a worship team coordinator and administrative help.

We put off looking for an office during the summer as we made the transition into the Senior Center for worship, but we will be back at it this fall. We hope to find a small location in Stanwood that will give us a more permanent presence in the community.

Thank you all so much for your continual prayers and support!